Wednesday, June 13, 2012

This is a bit of a... shameful thing.
You see, I was sent this book ages ago. I mean, FOREVER. It's just a
few months shy of a year ago that I received this book. I read it,
and loved it. (As you will see in my review following.) I even got to
interview the author! They gave me a number to call, and a time and I
dialed into a conference call (I felt very spoiled, let me tell you
that). I got to ask Angela questions about the book, herself and we
ended up chatting about various other things, not just the book. It
wasn't until after I hung up the phone I remember the other group of
people that were listening to the conversation as well...

I had a review, as well as the
interview all typed up. And then one of the worst things that can
happen to a student and/or blogger happened. My computer died. It
took weeks to fix, when I finally got it back I was scrambling to
find all of my assignments that were due. It was several more weeks
before I realized just how much I'd lost when my computer died.
Including the author interview. I finally recovered it, and promptly
forgot about it. (I'm sorry Angela, Sara and everyone else!) Then
about 3 months ago I remembered (because I got an email from them...)
and realized I needed to get it cleaned and ready to post to the
blog. Then it happened again. My computer died. This time it took an
even harder hit. I lost pretty much everything I had on my computer.
It's a fixed and lovely now, working well with one of the best
anti-virus systems my computer guy could find. Two weeks ago I was
looking for an old paper I'd written that I wanted to reuse for
another class, I found it along with (drum roll please) THE AUTHOR
INTERVIEW! Unfortunately, it had been corrupted when the virus hit
my computer, so I only have bits and pieces. What was an amazing
interview, has turned into fragmented notes here and there left for
me to interpret, trying to remember what it was I was talking about
when I typed it. Kinda like going back and studying notes for an
exam.

However, the book and being able to
talk to Angela was just too much fun not to share, so here is the
interview along with my review. Scrambled as it might be.

Review:

I've always been a sucker for time
travel stories (hello Doctor Who). As I am sitting here typing this
review I'm looking at my bookshelves and I can spot at least six of
them that involve time travel. So when this book was offered to me, I
was ecstatic. It was also the first time I'd been offered a book to
review as a blogger that wasn't self published (nothing wrong with a
self published book, of course). I got the book and my first
impression? The cover was beautiful.
I later found out why.

Here
is the description of the book I stole from the website:

“n 1955 in the heartland of
America, mismatched high
school classmates Mary,
Judy,
Maxine,
Beverly
and Ann
are assigned an intriguing social studies
project by their eccentric teacher,
Miss Boggs: they must predict what life will be like fifty-five years
into the future. Little do they know that their grade is more than
pass or fail; what they present to their teacher will turn their
lives upside down. The day after the assignment, the girls
mysteriously wake up in the very era they attempted to predict…and
discover just how off-base they were. While venturing to solve the
puzzle of their time travel predicament, they learn more about
themselves and each other than they bargained for! Each Fifties Chix
has a talisman that symbolizes a special talent that each one needs
to navigate her new world and help them find the way back “home”
to 1955.

Through diary entries and extraordinary story text,
this book
series unfolds the Fifties
Chix, their hopes, dreams, secret crushes, friendships,
mysteries, and families as they time travel and explore parallel
worlds in time that prove to be both different and similar. The
scenes are set and enriched with fascinating historical references,
young love, adventure, intrigue, and lots of 1950s
slang, facts, and culture.”

The
characters are so very likeable. Some of them took me a chapter or
two to really love, but all of them stole my heart by the time I was
very far into the story. Each of them have unique personalities and
traits about them that set them apart and give the reader more
reasons to love them.

Then
there is the mystery. Why
did they travel in time? How? Some
things haven't changed... But everything else is so very different
from the world they knew. The characters grow and change living in
this new world, and it was so fun to watch them adapt, but never
abandon their true selves. It is interesting to see their time period
compared with our own. It highlights just how much has changed, the
good and the bad.

I feel
like this is a rather vague review, but one of the delights of
reading this book is I had no prior knowledge of the book. I didn't
know what to expect.

I
would recommend this to anyone who enjoys time travel, friendship
stories, or just a flat out fun read. It's classified as a Middle to
YA level, so it's suitable for about any age. Although some of the
references to the 50's might be lost on younger readers. There is a
lovely section in the back of the book that defines some of the slang
and cultural references used.

I give
this book 5 well deserved stars

Author
Interview:

As if
I didn't gush about it enough above, I had a BLAST getting to talk to
the author. Angela was a delight to talk to. I loved getting to hear
about the writing process, we also had a few things in common and
drifted off topic a few times, it was fantastic.

I've
been glancing through the notes and realized that some of the stuff
could be spoilers, so I leave that stuff out but there is still some
fun stuff to talk about.

I
first asked when the next book would be out, because I was dying to
know what was going to happen next after the BIG SPOILER happened at
the end of the book. The next book is supposed to be out this year.
(Yay for a sequel I don't have to wait 3+years for!)

I also
asked why she had picked the 50's, it's one of my favorite time
periods so I was curious what inspired her to write about it.

She
said (and I'm having to paraphrase because of the fragmented remains
of a document I'm pulling this from) That it was the Golden Era. It
was a peaceful time... and yet there were so many things brewing
under the surface. Civil Rights, Women's Rights...

Angela
did a lot of research for the book, there was so much detail in the
story that it was obvious. When I asked she said it took an entire
summer just for the research, she wanted it to be as authentic as
possible.

I
asked if she had any favorite scenes, particular parts that she had
enjoyed writing the most. She mentioned a few parts (that I can't say
because it would be a spoiler, but they're wonderful moments) The
scenes she mentioned are very character defining moments, as well as
one rather powerful moment that happens early in the story.

Another
question I had was about the cover. Like I said before, I loved it. I
would have bought the book just for the cover. She told me that an
artist, and forgive me, I can't remember who it is, did the cover for
her. He actually found girls that looked like the characters and used
them as models for the cover. For the first time I read a book with
the characters on the front and they actually looked like they were
supposed to.

I've
lost most of the rest of the interview, but one last interesting
thing. She and I were reading the same book at the same time.
Actually, both of us have book ADD, in that we can't read just one
book at a time. So while we were both reading multiple books at the
time, we were both reading 'Shiver'. I was ridiculously pleased about
that.

Okay,
here are some fun links for you sent to me by the lovely publishing
company.

Sounds as if you need Carbonite. This saves all your info off in outer space somewhere - this is how I understand it - and when you need it after a crash, just log in and download it from their site. Good luck, Dee

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